Charlie Mulgrew has raised a theory on the lasting impact of Brendan Rodgers at Celtic.

The ex-Hoops defender and vice captain claims that many of Celtic’s senior players have been ‘Brendafied’, holding onto the tactical principles they were taught by the Irishman in the absence of a clear new tactical direction.

Charlie Mulgrew on Brendan Rodgers: ‘He was the football messiah’

Explaining his theory on The Breakdown, Mulgrew said firstly of Martin O’Neill: “I wouldn’t say he’s lost the changing room, because that would indicate that all the players are done with the manager. I don’t think that’s the case.

“I think, naturally, when you lose games and you don’t have good performances, you start to then question things. There’s players in there — Callum McGregor, Carter-Vickers, James Forrest… they’re a group of players who’ve worked under Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers.

“[Both of those] were completely clear on how they wanted to see the team play, how they wanted to press, how they wanted to play in possession, what it looked like, very tactical-minded coaches. Very clear.

“Martin O’Neill isn’t that guy. I don’t think he’s a tactical manager. I’m not saying he doesn’t see the game in certain ways; of course he does. But in terms of modern tactics, I don’t think that’s how he looks at the game.

“So I think, naturally, when you aren’t winning games, players go, ‘This is how Brendan Rodgers used to do it’.

“When I went back into Celtic and I was negotiating a contract, Celtic offered me a new contract on the first day of pre-season, so I wasn’t in on the first day of pre-season.

“So naturally, you’re negotiating, and it goes on for a few weeks. Eventually, I phoned up Brendan Rodgers and said, ‘Can I come in and train?’ and he was brilliant. He let me come in and train.

“He’d only been in the door for maybe three or four weeks, and I went in there, and the whole place was Brendafied. That’s the only way to describe it.

“Let me describe it. ‘Brendafied’. This is the whiz. We went to do the warm-up on the first day, and I’m just chatting with the boys, and Brendan’s let me come in. Brilliant.

“And he goes, ‘Vamos!’ to start the warmup. I just burst out laughing, because I thought, ‘That must be a wind-up. He shouted vamos. He’s from Northern Ireland!’

“So I’m laughing, and I’m jogging round with the boys going, ‘What about that!?’ and they’re all just ignoring me. And I’m like, ‘Did they see that? Why are they not laughing?’

“But obviously, they were so tuned in on his way and how he does things, which is brilliant, because as a manager, you need to get everybody on board. But the whole place was Brendafied. When you spoke to boys away with Scotland that had worked under Brendan Rodgers, it was as if he was the football messiah and nobody else knew anything about the game apart from Brendan Rodgers.

“So that’s what I mean, they were Brendafied.”